Alea Iacta Est
by Correcthorsebatterystaple
Summary: What if, instead of corrupting Luminous, before the Black Mage had been sealed away he had dragged Freud in with him as well? Hundreds of years later, Freud is his prisoner. Black Mage/Freud, contains a headcanon real name for the Black Mage in later chapters.
1. Ante Bellum

Freud grit his teeth against the pain, sitting in front of Mercedes, who was unconscious, to protect her. She was already so beaten up that if she took any more, it was likely that she would die. And Freud had promised himself he wouldn't let _any _of them die.

Already, he was afraid that that promise had been broken; it was getting harder and harder to hear Afrien's thoughts. The dragon had jumped in front of Freud, taking the curse the Black Mage had fired at him. Freud had shouted at him to fly away while he still could, and Afrien, recognizing the wisdom of it and knowing he was useless after the blow he had taken, had flown away with difficulty, nearly crash-landing several times.

Freud couldn't stand losing his best friend of all, the king of dragons. He turned his mind back to the fight and slowly, he gathered his power, closing his eyes and feeling the magic in the area. His own gathered in slow, steady and powerful waves, until it pooled around him in a bright aura.

This was his back up plan, for if they were unable to kill their greatest enemy. But it would only work for so long. He had been afraid that it would come to us, and it took a great deal to make Freud, the greatest and only dragon master in Maple, afraid.

"_Subsisto tempus," _Freud whispered.

And time, all around them, stopped, except for Freud and Luminous. Clenching his jaw against the draining of his power, Freud began talking hurriedly. "Luminous. I set up the seal points to seal away the Black Mage. I need you to pour your magic into them. _Quickly, before I can't hold this any longer,"_ He hissed.

Luminous nodded briefly and in flashes of light, teleported to each of the points of the seal, completely focused on his task. Freud put all of his being into focusing.

A bead of sweat trickled down Freud's forehead, stinging a bloody cut over his eye. His every breath was shallow; it was physically affecting him, holding the halt in time. His grasp was slipping.

"Luminous- I can't-!" Freud shouted hurriedly, just before his energy ran out. Luminous was just teleporting to the last point.

And all that happened next began in a rush; the Black Mage began moving again and, quickly surmising the situation, he attacked.

Freud's eyes widened as a chain made of magic shot forward and wrapped around his ankle, dragging him across the floor into the sealing area. He struggled desperately and weakly.

And just as Luminous reached the last point and the seal began to form, trapping both Freud and his enemy, the Black Mage fired a curse at Luminous, Mercedes, and Phantom, who had just skidded into the temple, looking panicked.

Everything went white.

* * *

**AN: Don't be discouraged by the shortness of this, it's just a prologue. **

**I'm so absurdly excited to write this!**


	2. Ante Amor

Freud cracked his eyes open with difficulty, feeling them stinging. The room around him was dark. He tested his arms by moving them forward, and he felt them bound behind his back by handcuffs.

_Ah. So that's how it is._

As his eyes adjusted to the dark, the dread began to creep up on the dragon master. He was in a prison cell, with sturdy looking bars. The cell was completely empty aside from him and a toilet. There didn't seem to be any way he could escape.

Freud was alone, quite possibly in the palms of the Black Mage's hands, had no way of knowing whether or not the other heroes were alive-

Wait. An idea struck him.

_Afrien? Are you there?_

Desolation crashed over the mage in sharp waves when no one responded to his telepathic call. He took a deep breath and forced it down. He had to stay calm. Perhaps Afrien was still asleep, trapped in the curse of ice.

His wrists felt chafed and his mouth, dry. He could feel a burning need to relieve himself, so he had obviously been here for at least a day. If he was awake and alive, then the seal had already passed, and it was at least a hundred years in the future from when the battle took place. Somehow, he had survived, despite his weak state. He supposed that the reason he had apparently woken up later than the Black Mage was because of the injuries he had suffered.

_How much longer will this go on?_ Freud wondered tiredly. They had been battling against the Black Mage for so long. His optimistic dreams of peace were difficult to remember, in this dark, dank prison.

Footsteps echoed down the halls, along with the jangling of keys. Freud lifted his weary head and peered out the bars to see what appeared to be a guard heading towards his cell. The man was wearing a cloak with the sigil of the Black Wings on it. He lifted the keys and unlocked the cell door, letting it creak open, and stepped inside.

"Get up. Our master wants you prepared to see him," The Black Wing said curtly

Several minutes later, after using the toilet under the uncomfortable, perverse gaze of the guard, Freud was led at spear point to a plain room where he was given a wash basin, a hair brush, and a plain set of white robes. His own were in tatters. Feeling no need to argue against this, after Freud's handcuffs were undone he washed up and redressed. There was no current way to escape, anyway; he was too weak.

The robes felt soft against Freud's bruised skin. He wondered why he was being given this courtesy.

His eyes darted around, surveying his surroundings. They had passed through a hallway to reach this room, and the hallway appeared to lead on after that, lighted by torches. It branched off in two directions at the end.

Freud was handcuffed and once again led back to his cell. He waited for several minutes, and looked up once more at the sound of footsteps and rustling of robes.

The hero kept his face carefully blank as he stared up into the face of the Black Mage, his blue eyes meeting the man's shocking blood red ones.

"Hello, Freud," Amusement echoed in the mage's voice, making him sound much like a child about to step on an ant.

Freud kept silent and impassive, feeling the scorn he held for the Black Mage rising like bile in his throat.

"Congratulations," He murmured, idly glancing down at his claw-like nails.

"On what?" Freud asked in a steely voice.

"Besting me, of course. I have to say, I hadn't expected you to freeze time itself."

"Cut the crap," Freud said simply. "Why did you have me be 'prepared'? It shouldn't matter to you whether I'm presentable or not."

The Black Mage chuckled. "Because I want to see _Freud, dragon master, _the man _I _defeated, not some bloodied up scrap," He said with a kind of sick humor.

Freud ignored being called a 'bloodied up scrap', but felt sickened by being regarded as a trophy for the other mage, needing to be polished up.

"I don't suppose you're going to let me go."

"No."

The answer didn't faze Freud. He had been expecting it.

The Black Mage stepped closer, and Freud noticed that he was holding a tray. He waved a slender hand towards the guard authoritatively, "Leave us."

After that, the raven-haired man opened the cell door and stepped inside, shutting it behind him with a clang. He sat down in front of Freud and set the tray on his lap, holding up a spoonful of what appeared to be soup to Freud's face.

Freud tugged at the handcuffs, feeling his stomach growl. Still, he sat up straight, refusing to be fed by whom he considered the most evil man alive. He had far too much pride to sink that low.

"Fine. Starve," The Black Mage said boredly, propping his head up on one hand, his fingers curling against his cheek.

Freud disliked this man intensely.

"What's your name?" Freud smirked as the question threw the other man off guard, noticing the briefly startled look that flashed across his pallid face before it returned to a blank stare.

"You'll find out eventually," He shrugged his slender, becloaked shoulders. Freud found himself tracing the gold patterns on his black robes with his eyes, unable to meet the Black Mage's unsettling gaze any longer.

"Freud. I don't expect you to do anything but refuse, but I have to offer; side with me. You and your companions don't need to fight me. All I want is to unite the world and begin a new age of peace. Is that truly wrong of me?"

Freud found himself repressing a shudder. The mage's voice was subtly convincing; the man held a strange sort of natural charm.

"What's wrong is that you intend to usurp Cygnus's place as rightful ruler. You don't want peace; you want to play God. You lost all chances of becoming anything close to that when you surrendered your light."

"I had to, in order to use the magic that most are too afraid to tap into."

"Black magic," Freud grimaced, both from the words and the fact that his throat was becoming hoarse from lack of water. "There's a reason that it's forbidden."

"Why?" The Black Mage countered, red eyes boring into Freud's. "I am perfectly capable of controlling it."

"This stupid quest for power has corrupted you," Freud spat. "You were the White Mage, once."

The Black Mage tilted his head to the side ponderingly. "Think of it this way, my dear Freud. This is all but a chess game. And I did not make the first move; your side did. All I asked was that, as the Transcendent of Light, the world accept me as the emperor, so that I may make changes and purify the world.

"Yet I was not the one that declined. I did not make the first move. You did, thinking yourself capable of judging me as a wrong-doer. You want to play God as much as I do."

"You're arguing 'but he started it,' are you? How childish."

The Black Mage's eyes narrowed. In a sudden movement, he grabbed Freud's chin and slammed his head back against the hard wall. Freud huffed out a pained laugh, knowing he had struck a sore nerve. He felt blood trickle down the back of his neck.

"Don't presume to understand me," The mage said darkly, before leaning in to whisper in Freud's ear. "And by the way..."

"_It's Lux."_

It took Freud some time to figure out what those last words had meant, as the cell door slammed behind the other man, who had taken the tray back. And when he did, he shook his head.

"_Lux?_ How ironic."


	3. Fabula Mirabilis

The next several hours were spent in pained silence.

Freud had nothing to do but think over possible escape plans and try not to think about how much pain he was in, or how hungry he was. The growling of his stomach had him hunched over, and he felt sickened by the stench of his own blood in the air.

The silence would have been almost deafening if it weren't for the shuffling of the guard outside, and Freud's own thoughts. Again and again, he tried to call out to Afrien, only to lose a precious piece of hope every time there came no answer.

Freud wasn't sure how long he had been laying on the cold, hard floor of the cell. It could have been a day, for all he knew. All that he could surmise was that hours had passed. At some point, he must have fallen briefly asleep, for there was a lapsed path in his memory paved by blissful darkness. He awoke with a groan, fingers twitching as he tried to reach towards his throbbing head.

It was too bad that it wasn't all just a nightmare.

As time went on, Freud came to realize that the guards switched every hour. Wincing at how macabre it was, he nonetheless quietly painted the hours that had passed on the floor, in his own blood.

Five hours passed ever-so-slowly before the door creaked open once more. Freud looked up slowly and found himself oddly disappointed when it was just a guard. That disappointment was sharply retracted as soon as he realized the guard was carrying food. A thick, hearty looking stew.

"Our lord ordered to bring this to you," The guard said briefly, looking down at him with poorly masked pity in her eyes.

_Perfect; that can be exploited,_ Freud shrewdly noted despite his overwhelming hunger.

"I'll uncuff you so you can eat, but I'll have you know that there's no chance of you escaping," The guardswoman kept her hand on her sword in a subtly threatening manner. Freud nodded briefly.

_Click. _She unlocked the handcuffs. Despite his hunger, Freud managed to refrain from eating too quickly and thusly causing himself to vomit.

"Thank you," Freud murmured politely, "Would you mind telling me where we are?"

The woman scrutinized him with her plain grey eyes. A moment passed before she replied, "We are in the mountains of El Nath."

Freud looked surprised. That had been... Far too easy.

"The only reason I don't mind telling you is that anyone could tell you we're practically in the middle of nowhere. Even if you made it out of here, you'd freeze to death before reaching any sort of civilization," She explained, once again with the look of pity.

Ah. Just Freud's luck.

Too weary to think on the matter any longer, Freud sighed and layed down on the hard floor, feeling his body aching, and let his burning eyes fall shut. He fell into a fitful sleep.

The days passed slowly. Freud spent much of the time sleeping, and when he wasn't sleeping, he was counting the hours that had passed. The guards would bring him food and water three times per day. Although it wasn't pleasant, Freud realized that this wasn't the kind of torture he had expected from a man such as the one holding him captive.

Nonetheless, Freud was self-observant enough to recognize that he was falling into a depression. Hopelessness plagued his mind, making him wonder if the other heroes, his _friends,_ were even still alive. How long would it be before he saw the light of day once more?

_Phantom, Mercedes, Luminous, Aran... I miss you,_

Sometimes, in his unrestful sleep, Freud dreamt that they came to save him.

It was becoming routine, until one day, something different happened.

The familiar sound of the lock on the cell rattling jarred Freud from his dreamless sleep. He opened his bleary eyes slowly, expecting a guard to be bringing him food, but instead, a man entered and set something down on the floor in front of Freud. The dragon master's fingers curled as he sat up and stretched, and breathed in.

The oh so familiar scent of books hit the redhead like a blow, achingly reminding him of his study, where he had fallen asleep in many times, only to be roused with a gentle smile from Mercedes, or a laughing grin on Phantom's part, as he lightly uttered '_Woe is your bed, unused as it is. You ought to sleep where you're intended to. You'll catch a cold, don't you know?_'

Freud blinked and the reminiscent memories that flashed before his eyes faded. Instead, it was a stack of leather-bound books that were before them.

"I was ordered to give these to you," The guard explained, flashing Freud a friendly smile.

Freud cast the man a brief nod before cracking open one of the books and peering at it.

From then on, Freud bided his time reading the books given to him. Still, he had to wonder about the intentions behind the books.

Freud scoffed, wondering if the Black Mage (Or rather, Lux) considered himself a benevolent 'ruler' by doing this.

Whatever the case, Freud found himself strangely appreciative of the gift.


	4. Insolitus

_Dark. It was dark._

_He was searching for something- no, someone. A link. A connection._

_His literal soulmate._

_Afrien... Afrien..._

_A scream of pain that hurt his mind. Cold. Dark._

_AFRIEN!_

_Gone... __**No...**_

Freud awoke with a gasp, head jerking up from where it had been pillowed on his forearm. There were few things that could shake the steadfast scholar, but the idea of losing his closest, oldest friend was a terrifying one. The nightmare had greatly unsettled him and aroused the fears he had been trying to hold back. He panted for breath, fingers curling weakly into the fabric of the white robes he was clad in, missing the symbol on his old robes that reminded him of Afrien; that of a dragon.

Pulling himself together and sitting up, Freud began counting the marks on the floor. One... Twelve... Forty...

_I've been here for more than two days._

Freud paused.

He was afraid. Afraid of how little time had passed, in what had felt like months. He ached to feel the sunlight or even rain on his skin once again. To sit in the comfort of his study. To shake his head at Phantom and Luminous's arguing antics.

A litany of missing and Freud had nothing to show for it. He sighed and began thinking on ways to escape.

He couldn't use his magic without Afrien or his staff, so he had no weapon whatsoever. Perhaps he could exploit one of the guards into letting him free...

So lost in thought was Freud that he didn't notice the creak of the cell door opening, and the shuffling of robes across the floor. Not until a deep voice echoed through the room.

"Did you enjoy my gift, Freud?"

Freud was startled, but he refused to let it show. He composed himself before turning to face the other man.

"Hello... Lux," Freud murmured warily, refusing to answer the question.

Lux began to pace the small, cramped room, "I brought you news."

Freud yawned. "I don't suppose it's anything pleasant. The slaughter of more innocent people?"

"No," The Black Mage smiled widely. "I think it's something that you will find more of interest to you," he clasped his hands behind his back much like an eager child.

"Oh?"

"Your successor has found Afrien."

Freud's stomach dropped. _Successor? Afrien?_ His confusion must have shown on his face, for Lux began to explain.

"They think you're dead, Freud. They've began to train a _replacement. _He's a fifteen year old boy."

Freud frowned, "And how do you know all this?"

"Because the boy is keeping a secret from the other heroes," Lux looked amused. "He's working for us."

Freud caught on easily, "You tricked him, didn't you? He doesn't know any better."

"Correct. Furthermore, he lead us straight to the resting place of Afrien."

Freud jerked and grit his teeth, "If you do anything to him-"

"Rest assured, I have no need of anything to do with the king of dragons. He's useless to me, anyways."

"What do you mean?" The redhead bit his lip, brow furrowed.

"The curse went wrong. Afrien is trapped on an island, eternally bound by ice."

Freud's head reeled dizzily. His fists clenched, stinging his chafed wrists. All of this information was coming in too fast, causing his head to throb even worse. He watched as Lux glanced down at the dried, bloody marks on the floor and smiled down at him knowingly.

Freud tensed up as the man settled behind him and pried at the scab at the back of his head.

"It's infected."

Without any warning, Freud felt a magical pressure burning against his skin. He hissed in pain and discomfort; it felt _wrong._ It was healing magic, but corrupted by darkness. He tried to jerk away, but Lux held him still.

A minute later, the Black Mage finally stopped, along with the pain. There was a disgusting crawling sensation down the back of Freud's neck. He felt violated.

"If I had the pleasure of never experiencing that again, it would be too soon," Freud said disgruntledly, "Why did you do that?"

Lux shrugged mysteriously, "Perhaps I'm not as cruel as you seem to think."

With that, he turned and left, leaving Freud to slump against the wall, confused and exhausted from the encounter.

* * *

When food next came, Freud found himself staring down at the spoon, lost in thought, when it occurred to him.

He could use this.

The dragon master glanced at the guard, who seemed to not be paying attention, and he casually slipped the spoon into the sleeve of his robes once he was done eating. Spoons were the only utensils he was allowed, for obvious reasons.

The guard took the empty dishes out, oblivious to the loss of the spoon, and handcuffed Freud once more. When the guard returned to standing outside, Freud slipped the spoon into his fingers.

He began to grind it against the floor to turn it into a sharp edge.

_Soon, I'll be out of here..._


	5. Effugio

Lux's visits had become more frequent.

Many times, the Black Mage brought along with him tidbits of information about the current ongoings. He talked about how he had sent emissaries to a town to demand that they side with him, or in a stalking rage he would pace about the room, fury turning his eyes dark as he muttered quickly about how the heroes had done him some injustice or another, or yet again a commander of his had betrayed him.

When he had heard from Lux that many of the higher ranking Black Wings were complaining of missing valuables, Freud had choked on his own laughter and wanted to hug Phantom so badly, then. Leave it to the thief hero to have a sarcastic rebuttal to the Black Mage's every move.

Every little mention of Mercedes, Phantom, Luminous or even his young successor, Evan, (who had, by then, figured out that he was being tricked and kicked the ass of the Black Wing giving him orders) brought warmth to Freud, and even the hope that he had been fast losing.

Still, he had to wonder why Lux chose to inform him of all of these things. There was no need, of course; he was merely a prisoner to the man. But when he warily asked of the matter, all he was met with was a mysterious, slight shrug of the mage's slender shoulders, and perhaps a _I have my reasons, Freud._

Freud still found it quite strange that he was speaking with the Black Mage on a regular basis. Had he been told that this would have been the case... Well, a hundred years ago, he would have been quite disbelieving.

Sometimes, as Freud layed on the floor and watched the flickering shadows of the torches in the hallway, he would close his eyes and wonder how things had become this way.

The cell always smelled of cold and dark and blood, maybe even a hint of sweat from the thick uniforms the guards tended to wear. It was entirely unpleasant, even if Freud was then used to it. The place wasn't exactly a feast for the eyes, either; it was plain and gray, and Freud wasn't so shameless as Phantom to check out the guards.

When Freud's nose wasn't buried in the books Lux continually gave him, he was counting. The bars blocking him from freedom. The old, bloody marks on the floor (his head was no longer bleeding, so he did his best to keep track of the time that had passed in his mind. Phantom was the one with the photographic memory, though; it was the reason for his skill of copying the abilities of others. Freud was more well-known for his genius), and sometimes he would even count his weary sighs. Counting was a comfort; oftentimes in his scholarly studies he had to use mathematics, and so it was a familiar thing.

Sometimes Freud would listen in on the brief conversations of the guards as they exchanged places guarding him and wonder at how wholly _human_ they were for men working for one of the most evil men on Maple. They talked about husbands and wives and sometimes even children. They talked about Lux as if he was a god.

Sitting there handcuffed as he was, his wrists chafed and burning as he shivered, Freud could easily hate this so-called 'god'. Yet the mage was strangely human himself, for someone who had so much control, so much power over the life and death of innocents. Yet it was easy to tell that he was quite the madman, for all that he ranted and raved.

The strangest thing was the compassion that Lux occasionally seemed to show Freud. The healing of his neck. The fact that he was brought food and water on a regular basis, despite that Lux could leave him down there to rot, with hardly any rations, and it would still be enough to keep him alive for whatever twisted purpose he had. The way the raven-haired man would bring him news, as if knowing that Freud would easily lose his mind were he to be trapped, slowly feeling the clock tick by with no connection to the outside world.

_I don't even know what to think, anymore._ Freud tapped a restless beat against the knuckles of his left hand, and, when he noted that the guard was looking away, began to grind away at the stolen spoon once more.

* * *

Lux was in one of his blind rages, again.

The red-eyed man was a flurry of motion, storming about the small cell like a hurricane. His robes were a black and gold swirl around him, and his eyes were bright with fury. The guard had cowered before him, prior to being sent off with a snarl. For some reason, he had never taken his anger out on Freud, ever since the day he had slammed the other mage's head into the wall. Lux had no qualms with releasing his displeasure on the guards, however. Freud pitied them.

Despite it all, Freud was not afraid of the man chasing mindless circles around the mostly empty room. He was the calm amidst the storm, languidly sitting with his body propped up by his elbows.

"I would bring peace... Unite the lands... Why don't they see?" Lux hissed under his breath. He pulled at his short, dark hair harshly.

All of a sudden, the Black Mage stopped in his tracks, screeching to an abrupt halt. His twisted up face straightened, becoming carefully blank. The change was almost frightening in nature, although Freud had become somewhat used to it.

"I brought you something," He declared, before reaching into his robes and withdrawing a small box. Freud peered at it distrustfully.

Lux opened the box, and Freud raised his eyebrows.

"...Cake?"

"You must be tired of eating soups all the time," Lux shrugged, passing Freud the box of vanilla cake. Their hands briefly met, causing Freud to shiver; the Black Mage's hands were as cold as ice.

Freud stared at the piece of cake warily, before his lips twitched upwards helplessly. _Am I really worrying about a slice of cake? If he wanted to kill me, there are easier ways than poison._ With a careless shrug of his own, Freud dug in. He glanced up at Lux, and their eyes locked.

"Thank you, I suppose," Freud said simply. He paused. "You were right about one thing."

Lux raised a dark eyebrow. "And that was?"

"I can't even begin to understand you."

Freud jerked as he felt a nigh skeletal hand curling against the cloth covering his shoulder. Lux's eyes searched his unnervingly. "Perhaps we're not so different as you think."

Freud flinched away, breaking eye-contact, and slammed his walls back up, finally realizing that he had been dropping his guard. His eyes hardened. "I will _never_ be anything like you," He spat.

Were any of the other heroes to see Freud now, they would be shocked at the amount of raw hatred in the normally peaceful, quiet and calm man's eyes.

Freud spent the rest of the day huddled in the corner, deeply unsettled.

_No matter... _Freud traced the outline of the spoon in his sleeve, and it brought him comfort. His eyes fell shut. _Soon, I'll be free._

* * *

It was time.

It wasn't exactly Freud's weapon of choice, a sharpened spoon, but it was far better than nothing. Anticipation pooling in his stomach, the redhead called out softly.

"I need to use the toilet."

A moment later, Freud's current guard unlocked the door and stepped inside. The young man uncuffed the scholar.

Freud struck.

Without any warning, the guardsman found himself with a sharp spoon sticking out of his thigh. Before he could shakily cry out in surprised pain, Freud whirled around behind the man and covered his mouth and nose, choking him.

Freud's heart pounded in his chest, adrenaline overwhelming him. Finally, the guardsman slumped against him heavily, unconscious.

Freud's eyes widened. _It worked._ The hero wasted no time in robbing the guard of his weapon- a dagger- and the keys. He quickly unclasped the Black Wings' cloak from around the man's neck and wrapped it around himself, pulling the hood up.

In no time, Freud was running down the hallway, up to the branching pathway. To the right, there were large, grand double doors fit for the room of a king. To the left, the hallway went on.

Before Freud could even take a step towards the left, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.

"Going somewhere?" A voice asked harshly.

Before Freud could whirl around, dagger in hand, something- no, a staff- slammed into his head.

He crumpled to the floor, vision going black.

* * *

A redheaded woman with remarkable assets propped her high-heel clad foot on the unconscious body of a certain dragon master, staring down at him disdainfully. She shook her head and sighed, stretching with her arms behind her head.

"Dumbass _kid."_

Hilla peered down at her painted nails, carefully making certain that she hadn't broken any. After all, beauty was more important than anything else.

She twirled her staff around before slamming it into Freud's stomach, smirking sadistically at his groan of pain.

"Oh, Lux is _not_ going to be pleased..."


	6. Solus ego

"...Found him... Hallway... No, do you think I'm an idiot?" Came snippets of a faint, fuzzy voice flippantly, although Freud could vaguely hear an undercurrent of fear in the woman's speech. The world was beginning to come into focus as the scholar's eyes fluttered open.

Hilla paused. "Ah. He's waking up."

Freud groaned and tried to sit up, but merely cried out in pain, hands attempting to fly to his pained head. Alas, they were bound. His breath came out shakily. He was stuck laying there on his stomach, hands behind his back.

_I have a knack for waking up handcuffed, _Freud thought dryly.

He was startled by a slow clap. The redhead focused his gaze upwards and met Lux's unamused stare.

"Congratulations."

Lux was languidly seated in an ornate throne, the heel of his palm now cradling his porcelain cheek. He truly looked like a king, with his finely embroidered robes as well as the self-confident air he exuded. His black hair fell in locks down his forehead and the sides of his face, framing his crimson eyes and sharp features unsettlingly.

"But come now, Freud. What were you even planning to do, were you to succeed in your little escape attempt?"

Freud resolutely ignored the question, even as Lux's eyes narrowed and he rose from his throne. The brunette stalked over to his captive and knelt down, grabbing Freud's face in one hand so that his claw-like nails dug into the redhead's cheeks.

_Crack._

All of a sudden there was a sharp, aching pain in Freud's hand. The mage's head bowed and he panted with the pain.

Hilla chuckled triumphantly, obviously seeming to think that she had earned brownie points. She lifted her heel from Freud's finger. "When our master asks you something, you answer, got tha..." The woman suddenly trailed off as Lux shot her an utterly chilling look. Her face paled.

"_Leave," _Lux's voice was quiet but deadly. Hilla scurried out of the room quickly, practically falling over herself.

Freud lifted his head, teeth clenched, and stared at his hand. His index finger was crooked sideways.

"What does it matter to you if she injures me?" Freud ground out.

Lux smiled strangely. "Because only _I_ am allowed to hurt you."

Almost as if to prove his point, Lux carefully shifted the other man's finger back into its proper place.

Freud blacked out once more.

* * *

**AN: Lol, Lux, you sadistic bastard, you. -pinches cheeks-**


	7. Ille quis movēre primitus

Freud felt weightless.

Slender arms were wrapped around him, hooked under his knees and neck and pulling him close to a chest. Whomever was carrying him was walking slowly, deliberately making sure not to jostle his aching head. The scholar sleepily sighed and turned his head, unwilling to wake just yet. He was trapped in that sleepy state where the world was blurred at the edges and comfort was a warm and soothing wave washing over him.

Flashes of dreams darted behind Freud's eyelids, disappearing more and more with each step.

The scholar's deep blue eyes flickered open, framed by dark lashes. He watched as hallways passed by them- them, being Lux and he, Freud realized.

"I hadn't thought that you could even lift me," Freud remarked sleepily.

"Should I take offense to that?" Lux smiled in a way that was almost coy.

Freud glanced down for a split second, tensed the slightest bit, and that was all it took for Lux's smile to shift to a smirk. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

"Do what?" Freud asked innocently, inwardly cursing.

"You were planning to kick me in the leg."

It took a lot to faze Freud. But that had surprised the respected scholar. Lux truly was a genius, if he had figured out what Freud had been about to do just based on a brief estimation of body language.

It unsettled Freud as well that Lux had come to know his body language that well.

"Guilty as charged. Where are you taking me?"

Lux ignored the question, fairly enough. "Do you want to hear a story, Freud?"

…

* * *

_A woman in Edelstein's face lit up with joy as she was presented with a precious bundle. Despite her child's premature birth, all had gone well; he was simply an under average weight._

_The baby did not cry or even coo as he was handed to his mother. He simply stared at the world with an unnaturally cold look._

_Shaking off her unease, his mother managed an uneasy smile. "Lux," She decided. "Your name is Lux."_

_There was nothing normal about Lux._

_The child, growing up, was antisocial and had little to no sense of empathy. The only thing that he seemed to care about were books._

_He was at the top of his every class. He spoke very little, and had many times managed to fluster his teachers by pointing out mistakes in their teachings._

_There was something strangely intimidating in the child. One look and it could feel as if he was looking straight through someone._

_Lux's mother knew that there was something utterly wrong about him from the day that he had begun capturing rats and conducting cold-blooded experiments on them._

* * *

"Your own mother was afraid of you?" Freud asked quietly.

"Don't pity me. She served her purpose as a mother adequately."

"Lux..." Freud murmured. "Why? Why do you have to do... All of this? Is it so hard to let go and accept that it's not your place to rule?"

"Then whose is it?" Lux asked coldly. "If I don't step up, no one will. Admit it, Freud. The world is in chaos. Monsters overrun cities daily. The fairies of Ellinia have many times very nearly declared war on the towns mainly occupied by humans. I could _help_."

"Empress Cygnus would be working on fixing these issues, if you weren't-"

"She is a _child!"_ Lux snapped violently, the naked fury across his face a sight to behold.

"She is wise, for her years," Freud answered calmly, watching as the vicious expression Lux was wearing faded, replaced by a stoic mask. Many times, Freud had watched Phantom do the exact same thing.

"I had hoped that you would understand, Freud," The Black Mage spoke softly, eyes filled with regret.

"I do understand," Freud replied cockily. "Not being in control is a difficult thing."

Lux's eyes narrowed and his lips pinched into a hard line. "Shut up."

Freud smiled and said nothing.

_How ironic. I'm being carried by Lux as if I'm his bride._

They approached a door to the side, and Lux kicked it open. Freud was met with the sight of a small room with several large windows that were too high to reach. A small table was set up in the center, and there was a bed in the corner, covered by plain white sheets and a thin pillow. Through the windows, the scholar could see that it was snowing outside in thick white flurries. It was dark out.

Lux gently set Freud down on his feet, steadying him as he swayed. He gestured to the table, upon which sat a chessboard.

"Would you care to play a game?"

Freud paused.

"...Why not?" The redhead decided. The Black Mage withdrew a key from his robes and unlocked the handcuffs.

Lux glanced to the chessboard, which was already set up, and then met Freud's eyes, silently issuing a smirking challenge.

It was a dare. _You think yourself to play as the 'good' side, don't you? _

Freud humored him and played along, sitting at the seat closest to the white pieces.

"Isn't it intriguing, Freud?" A half-smile flitted about Lux's lips. "Black and white. They've been symbolized as evil and good, respectively, for quite some time... Isn't it quite the oddity, then, that white, in chess, is the aggressor?"

"Oh?" Freud asked nonchalantly. A flick of his fingers, and a pawn was moved two spaces forward. "What if, say, black had threatened white beforehand?"

"An interesting theory," Lux cleared the way for his bishop to move. He looked across at Freud meaningfully. "And if black had a good reason for it?"

Freud hummed. "And thus, we enter the grey spectrum. A stalemate, yes?" The scholar languidly moved a pawn forward to meet an opposer in just that- a stalemate.

Freud nearly laughed, then. _Here I am, having a civil discussion about morals with the Black Mage, while on first name basis with him. How... Ridiculous._ He knew that were Mercedes in his place, she would be haughtily ignoring him with the air of the queen she was.

Freud had to admit, though; Lux was an engaging conversationalist.

It was rather awkward maneuvering the chess pieces around with his uninjured hand- consequentially, the hand that he wasn't used to using. The index finger of his writing hand was still throbbing in pain occasionally. He glanced at it and was surprised to notice that it was wrapped- apparently, Lux had bound the finger while he was unconscious.

Freud idly wondered if he would be able to write the same way again, once his finger had fully healed.

Lux moved yet another pawn. How fitting, Freud thought; a puppeteer, clad in black, his snow-white fingers moving his marionettes to their demise.

"However, a single move can break that stalemate. A bishop can overthrow one of the pawns, for example," Freud's bishop did just that. "And you have made that move. You've had hundreds of innocent townspeople killed simply because they valued their liberty."

"The good of the many over the good of the few," Lux said simply. "They got in the way "

Freud sighed. _What did I think? That I could convince him that he's wrong?_ "That's cruel, Lux. You don't even know whether or not you would make a better ruler than empress Cygnus. You're gambling with people's lives, here."

Lux shrugged. He lifted a pawn and twirled it idly. "Perhaps." He carelessly struck it down upon the board.

The game continued on for a good half-hour or so. Freud found that Lux was a strategic player, but he had one weakness; he was careless with the pieces he did not deem important. He was quickly losing his pawns, and had already lost both of his knights to Freud. Lux seemed to often use his pawns as bait.

Eventually, Freud managed to corner Lux's king using knights and pawns.

"Checkmate." With a flick of Freud's fingers, the black king toppled over with an ominous thud. "He who moves first often wins, you know."

"Oh?" Lux asked casually.

Freud was startled as a cold hand briefly slipped into his. Lux looked at him meaningfully.

"That's good to hear." Lux rose from his seat, hand parting from Freud's. He smiled mysteriously. "Welcome to your new chambers, Freud." With that, he turned and left, locking the door behind him.

Freud barely heard any of it over the static in his ears. The strange action of Lux's had shaken him.

Freud squared his shoulders and exhaled, shaking it off and telling himself that it had been nothing and it meant nothing. He jerked as suddenly, the white king fell, completely on its own.

The scholar watched with a sense of unease.

The two toppled kings. What an omen to behold...


	8. Dance macabre

After a long sleep that settled over Freud like a tidal wave, washing over him and pulling him under, the first thing Freud noticed about the room was that it was fairly well thought out. He had attempted lifting the chairs, maybe trying his luck at another escape attempt, but as it turned out, they were filled with sand and difficult to even push, let alone lift. The same was true of the tables and the bed, and the door was too thick to kick down.

Lux had really thought this through, hadn't he?

The second thing that Freud happened to notice was that Lux had not put the handcuffs back on him. The third? ...He was wearing new clothes. Perhaps it should have occurred to him earlier, seeing as it seemed that this had happened after he awoke in Lux's arms, but Freud had been fairly out of it due to his head-injury. He was surprised that he had managed to play chess that well with his head throbbing so violently.

The thing was... It was most likely that Lux had, well, been the one to change Freud's clothes, while he was unconscious after having passed out for the second time. And somehow, this brought a flush to the scholar's cheeks.

Freud found himself laying in bed, his arms arched and his hands clasped above his head as he thought. He wondered about the gesture from earlier- what had it even meant? What kind of mass-murderer reached out to cradle his enemy's hand almost... Fondly?

Was it a gesture of friendship?

For the first time in quite a while, Freud found himself frustrated. His fingers tugged at his curly auburn hair. _This whole situation is so absurd! _His teeth clenched together in a vice-like clamp.

Because the truth was, Freud felt a kind of connection between himself and Lux. In their conversations, they _clicked._ And that... Goddess, it terrified him. How could he be so similar, so... Compatible, with the_ Black Mage?_

Hell, they were having conversations as if they had known each other for years. Freud had felt comfortable being held to Lux's chest.

Freud felt a shaky hand wipe over his mouth, tracing the shape of a frown on his lips. And even though his closest friend wasn't there, he found himself reaching out anyways.

"Phantom... What am I even doing anymore?"

The scholar's weary voice echoed through the room, and no one answered.

* * *

"Freud."

Freud's head turned so he could look over his shoulder from his position standing by the window, watching the snow fall like the feathers of angels. The view brought serenity to the dragon master's thudding heart.

He was quiet, allowing his solemn look to ask a silent _'yes?'_.

"Did you know that your funeral is today?"

"Is that a threat?" There was genuine curiosity in Freud's voice.

"I meant, quite literally, what I said," Lux turned around briefly to shut the door behind him with an ominous thud. "The other heroes have decided to arrange a funeral for you."

The words, ironically enough, sent a chill down Freud's spine. He knew that they believed him to be dead, and yet it hadn't really registered to him as a reality. "How do you know this?"

"It was announced to the child empress," Lux sneered at the mention of Cygnus, "and I so happen to have informants in Ereve. The little girl's 'loyal knights' aren't so loyal as she may think."

It disturbed Freud sometimes, how well-informed Lux was. The man's networks were gradually increasing, day by day.

"Come here," Lux beckoned his captive with a crook of his finger. When Freud strode over, he was startled to feel Lux's arms wrap around him and a playful voice mutter in his ear.

"Happy death day, my dear Freud. Shall we celebrate?"

What a strange, dark sense of humor.

...Freud laughed anyways, because maybe there was something dark in him as well. Lux gave him no chance to truly reply before the Black Mage's fingers curled around his wrist, searing like cold fire into his skin.

And Lux led him out of the room. Freud's eyes hurriedly assessed his surroundings with every step, increasing the size of his mental map of the place. The halls were rather grand.

And then Lux was dragging him out of a door and the cold hit him like a slap to the face. There was wind in his hair and snow burning his feet and it was _wonderful._ Freud had missed the outdoors so.

The snow must have been a good six or more inches thick. It blanketed the land of El Nath, a mirror of the pale sky above it. It was full on winter surrounding them, in all its beauty and treachery.

The wind howled around them, at odds with the peaceful snow. Freud could see bare trees and evergreens around them, their branches dancing to the chorus of nature. The snow kept the beat.

"Dance with me," There was something about the way Lux looked, with snow in his dark hair and a mischievous glint in his eyes, his skin as pale as the snow around them, that had Freud gravitating towards him. And Freud knew then that this meant more than just a movement of bodies, leaving footprints in the snow. This was an invitation.

And as their hands linked, it idly occurred to Freud that he would never be the same, when all was said and done here.

His eyes slipped shut and they danced and Freud thought that it was a _dance macabre_. They were navigating dangerous territory, a friendship between the black and the white. One wrong move and it could all crash down.

Freud closed his eyes.

_One, two, three... One, two, three..._

Freud threw away all better judgement.

After all, there was a thrill in the dangerous.

* * *

**AN: Hi. I don't even know what I'm writing here. Does the ending even make sense? ;-;  
**


	9. Tē amō

Hilla knelt uncertainly in the most grandiose room within the area. Although most men, or women, would be quite interested in having the busty woman on her knees before them, the man seated in the throne was quite disinterested, even annoyed.

"You called for me, my lord?"

"Hilla. I've thought over it, and... I have something for you."

The woman practically perked up in her eagerness. Lux felt a quite palpable disgust for her rising up. She was an open book who thought she was closed, a predictable, unloyal servant who thought herself above him. And, perhaps even worse than that, above Freud.

"Come here," Lux murmured in a bored tone.

Hilla's heels click clacked across the floor. Her skirt swished about, the slits up the sides exposing a liberal amount of her legs. Her hips swayed in a manner she probably thought was seductive, but was actually quite ridiculous. A hopeful smile spread across her face, which was practically plastered with make-up. She sashayed over to where Lux sat.

"Give me your hand."

The Black Mage took Hilla's small hand, glancing down at her perfectly even nails. With a cold, clinical preciseness, he bent one of her dainty fingers backwards. The woman choked and whimpered in horror.

"You see, Hilla, if you ever even go near Freud again, I won't hesitate to kill you."

And she had the gall to whine out a quiet little, "Why?"

The mage found his fingers curling over the chain around his neck, idly playing with it.

* * *

_Gold. The fields were an endless plain of gold, all around him. The Leafre sun beat down overhead in the light blue sky, shining brightly. _

_Freud raced through the fields, laughing softly. The twelve year old had traveled to the town of Leafre with his mentor. He was training to become a mage. The cranky old scholar teaching him had sent him off to, in his own words, go do whatever he wanted. And the shimmering gold fields had been too beautiful to pass up._

_One minute Freud was running, and the next, he was falling, having hit something solid. Crashed in a heap on the ground, Freud stared up at a boy with hair as white as snow._

_He was met with the most stunning red eyes he had ever seen. The boy looked like a porcelain doll._

_Freud blinked, picking himself up, and noticed that the other boy had wet tracks down his cheeks._

"_Are you crying?" He asked hesitantly._

"_No," This strange boy sounded completely calm. He lifted a hand to block the sun from his eyes, and it occurred to Freud that his eyes must be overly sensitive to the light._

_Freud plucked his hat off and put it on the boy's head. "There," He smiled. "I'm Freud." He offered the younger boy his hand._

"_...Lux," Lux stared up at the proffered hand as if it were a snake about to bite him. With utmost caution, he reached up and took it. Freud hauled him up._

_With the sleeves of his robes, Freud gently wiped the teartracks away, observing Lux's startled look. The redhead wondered if anyone had ever wiped away his tears before._

"_You're strange," The young mage chuckled, blue eyes lit up with amusement, "Be my friend."_

_And Lux did._

_They talked. They talked about their respective mentors. They talked about how someday, Freud was going to deepen the connection between humans and dragons. They talked about magic that was supposedly far too advanced for the both of them, and yet the two of them understood it almost better than any adult._

_And far too soon..._

_...Sunset. Gold turned to fire, the sky a mix of peach and orange and red up above. Freud's face was beautifully silhouetted in flames and Lux was drowning in blue, blue, blue, like he had never before.  
_

"_I have to go. You won't forget about me, right?" Freud asked playfully._

_Lux found himself holding onto Freud and for once in his life, he didn't want to let go of something. He wanted to keep him, this boy with eyes of the ocean and a smile made of pure warmth. Lux had never had an actual friend before..._

"_Freud," Lux murmured. "How about we trade something? So neither of us forget?" He asked quietly._

_Freud's eyes lit up and then he was reaching in his pockets. "Aha!" He proudly held up a necklace with an intricate charm of a dragon hanging off it. He slipped it around Lux's neck, his fingers warm against the other boy's neck, and fumbled the clasp shut._

"_What are you going to give me?" Freud grinned expectantly._

_And then Lux was leaning up, his skinny arms wrapping around Freud's neck, and he pecked the redhead on the lips. It felt nice._

"_Freud!" An older voice shouted. "We're leaving,"_

_And then, just like that, Freud was gone._

* * *

"You see, Hilla," Lux smiled, then, but it was not for her. "I've only ever loved one person."


	10. Bene, futue

Freud awoke to the sound of the clinking of silverware. He slowly sat up, peering curiously towards the center of the room. The lights were out, but flickering shadows danced around the room, cast by flames cradled by the skeletal fingers of bone white candles. It took a moment for the scene to register in Freud's mind.

_What time is it, even?_

And amidst it all, Lux was seated in one of the chairs, one of his legs crossed over the other and his fingers steepled under his chin, supported by his elbows propped up on the table.

In front of him and across from him were two steaming hot meals- on expensive looking plates rested an assortment of delicious looking things- beef, carrots, onions, mushrooms and more, resting in a sea of darkly colored sauce. In bowls on the side were broccoli covered in hollandaise sauce. It looked fairly expensive.

Freud rubbed at his eyes and stretched. He smiled sleepily as Lux peered at his stomach while his nightshirt rode up. "Pervert."

"You of all people should have noticed by now that I'm not interested in such things," Lux remarked. It was true; Freud had, by then, developed a sneaking suspicion that the Black Mage had no interest in sexual things. He had never once seen Lux even so much as spare a glance for Hilla's bosom, or, were it simply that she was female the problem, look at the male guards that way. Freud understood that Lux's gaze just then had simply been a passing glance.

Freud shrugged and shifted around so that his bare feet were touching the floor. The candle-light reflected in his eyes mesmerizingly. "A candle-light dinner, though?_ Really, _Lux?"

"If you're going to criticize this situation, why not bring up the fact that it's three in the morning?" Lux smirked.

Freud arched an eyebrow and padded over to the table. "Well, that, too," He raised a wine glass in acknowledgement and a silent request for the damn thing to be filled, if he was expected to stay awake.

The man across from him obliged, pouring red wine into the glass in a slow stream.

"And the occasion is...?"

"Today was the day that I first met you," Freud saw Lux toying with a fine chain around his neck as he sat down.

"And you specifically remember that, why..?" Freud murmured bemusedly. The first time they had met had been when Lux had appeared in front of Aria to suggest that she step down from her place as empress, hadn't it? That had been before the woman was lured out to 'discuss terms', only to be murdered by Lotus.

Lux shook his head and murmured something quietly. "You really don't remember, do you?"

"What?"

"Nothing," Lux twirled his wine glass around, watching the liquid swirl. Freud watched him as the liquid slid down his parted lips, and he drained the glass in one go.

Freud was relaxed as he ate, oddly at peace with his current situation. Maybe it was just the wine, but Lux looked almost alluring with his face flushed with alcohol and his eyes bright.

They ate leisurely, and talked of various things. Before long, Freud could see the sky lightening outside the window.

"Good night, Freud," Lux blew out the candles.

"More like morning," Freud commented wryly. And then the Black Mage was standing up, chair a quiet cacophony in its scrape against the floor, and he was all too close.

Freud felt lips press against his temple in a surreal moment, and then Lux was gone, leaving the scholar with a confused flush across his cheeks.

* * *

_Teeth and tongue clashing against each other, and hands roaming over his chest, his shoulders. Freud was drowning in a sea of guilty pleasure and everything was a blur of red and blue, black and white. He was dancing and dancing and driven over the edge by claw-like nails digging into his back._

_This was chess, wasn't it? Well, maybe being captured by the enemy wasn't so bad..._

_Make love, not war, right? Oh, Goddess, he was laughing now and this felt oh so right._

"_Freud..."_

_Freud opened his eyes and was met with crimson red. Red eyes and a fleeting smile._

And then he was reeling, his head spinning as his eyes flew open and his fingers curled into the sheets.

Had Freud just dreamt... Lux and he...?

"_Well_."

To put it eloquently...

"What the fuck?" Freud breathed quietly.


	11. Inceptum finis

A man stood within a hidden-away field of Ereve. His blond hair was unkempt, and underneath his amethyst eyes were deep bags, colored in by dark circles. He looked as if he hadn't slept for days. His hands were tightly fisted in the crisp white fabric of his military-style shirt, doubtlessly with his knuckles bone-white as the gloves covering them.

Phantom was his name, and some sort of hellish phantom was what he looked like as the empress gently lowered a broken staff into a hole dug in the ground. Her eyes were far too sad for a child of her age.

Also present was a woman with flowing, fair hair and pointed ears, with her hand linked comfortingly with a younger, brunette boy's. A tall, darkly skinned woman had her head bowed sorrowfully, while a man with a shock of white hair watched emotionlessly.

Cygnus took a deep breath, eyes quickly scanning those of the legendary heroes in front of her. Her knights began to cover the battered staff with earth.

"I regret that I never had the chance to meet Freud," Cygnus began. Her voice was quiet, but it held a certain level of authority to it. "But I grieve for him too. I hold only the utmost respect for him, as the man who forged the link between man and dragon. As the man who sealed the Black Mage away."

The empress bowed her head and laid a single white rose upon the tombstone. The girl stepped aside.

"If any of you would care to say something..." Cygnus trailed off.

Phantom's hands clenched even tighter and his eyes narrowed. "I don't have time for that," he spat.

"_Phantom," _Mercedes hissed.

"That bastard killed my lover, and he killed my friend," Phantom said harshly. "Goddess damn it, what am I supposed to do now?!"

The elf queen's expression softened, and Phantom realized that hot tears were dripping down his cheeks. In a swift movement, he wiped them away.

What was left was only murder in his eyes.

"I'm going to gather more intelligence on where the Black Mage is hiding," Phantom uttered coldly, turning his back to his comrades. A single thought echoed hatefully in his mind.

_I'm going to kill you._

* * *

Freud was no fool.

This fact didn't exactly stop him from feeling foolish, though, as his fingers restlessly tip tapped against the black and white squares upon the chessboard across the tabletop. A frown crossed his handsome face.

As a scholar and a genius, it wasn't too hard for it to fit together. In fact, maybe he had known it from the start. Denial was a powerful thing, even if it more often affected others, rather than him.

Feeling comfortable around Lux. Overlooking the man's glaring flaws, despite how Freud _knew_ he was a misguided killer at best. The unmistakable attraction he felt towards him.

Freud sighed and let his head drop to the board, ignoring the thuds of chess pieces falling to the floor.

Black and white and white and black and all it was now was a muddled mess crumbling before his eyes.

_Goddess help me, I'm in love with Lux._

* * *

"Come walk with me," Lux said, and Freud lifted his weary head to look at him, words echoing distantly through the discord in his mind. He made no attempt to answer, even as the other mage stepped closer.

It took the dragon master a major amount of effort not to flinch as the Black Mage's fingers cupped his chin, tipping it up from its place resting against his pillowed forearms.

"You've been up all night," Lux observed, before catching Freud's wrist and pulling him up. The hero didn't resist except against himself, refusing the urge to become boneless and be caught by the other man.

Like a child, Freud was led along the halls by Lux, who was uncharacteristically quiet. Usually, the man would have been telling the redhead of the current ongoings by then.

Abruptly, Freud halted in his tracks, leaning back against a wall and letting his eyes fall shut. He'd been thinking about himself, Lux, and his feelings therein, all night.

"Lux," Freud said simply, peering at the other man "Neither of us are idiots. How about we cut to the chase?"

"And if I asked 'what chase'?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, I'm sure I've made it glaringly obvious by now that I have feelings for you."

A smirk spread across Lux's face. "And you want me to do something about it?" He took a step closer.

Freud stared back at him and that was answer enough. The former light-mage came closer, resting his forehead against the scholar's. Freud felt his heart pound as he breathed in the same air as Lux. He had underestimated how much of an effect that would have on him.

It was almost unbearably intimate, feeling the two of them pressed together chest to chest. Nonetheless, Freud met Lux's gaze unfalteringly and _Trancendents, when the hell did his eyes become pretty?_

Freud's lips twitched upwards helplessly. "Are you going to kiss me, or not?"

Lux let out a breathy little laugh that was altogether too perfect and then chapped lips were meeting another pair. A shaky exhale and Freud was pressing forward, rising up like the tide just to be _closer_. In that moment, black and white and neat little squares were inconsequential.

_The two toppled kings, indeed..._

Freud could feel every flutter of Lux's eyelashes, and every breath was a silent _I love you._ Neither of them really needed to speak it. Sticks and stones, of course, but words were never quite enough.

And through the static that had become Freud's every blurred thought, he thought that this was perfect imperfection.

Lux's smile and Lux's rants and the way he would restlessly shift his fingers, as every breath was his time to shine, to dance with his marionettes. It all was phantasmagoric and the scenes flashing before Freud's eyes were _Lux, Lux, Lux._

The scholar's heart seemed to want to run away with him, for how rapid it was beating. He shook his head and pulled back with an almost bitter, drunken laugh, head thudding back against the wall as his eyes turned to the ceiling with a strangely wry hopelessness.

"Lux?"

A single movement and the Black Mage's head was resting against Freud's shoulder, breath against his neck and locks of his hair drifting over the other man's collarbone like some sort of dark halo.

"Yes?"

What would they say, Freud wondered, were they to find the Black Mage and the legendary dragon master making out in some obscure corner of a hallway? He settled his chin atop Lux's head.

"Pardon the crass language, but..." Freud grinned helplessly at how _stupid_ this was. A relationship with the Black Mage. Yeah, right.

"We are royally fucked."

* * *

**AN: Pfft poor Phantom, while he's grieving for his 'dead' buddy, said buddy is playing tonsil hockey with the dude who had his girlfriend killed. Complicated love affair much?  
**


	12. Cohibeo

Freud awoke to red, in the most literal of ways staring him down. Even the renownededly calm scholar was human, and had a very human reaction in the form of being startled. He jerked upwards, feeling his head collide with another solid head.

"Good morning to you, too," Freud murmured dryly, backed up against the wall behind his pillow with his fingers curling against his pained head.

Lux simply blinked. His hand mirrored Freud's in its location, but he didn't seem to be bothered at all by the rough impact with the other man's forehead.

A unwillingly affectionate grin curved up the hero's lips, a sharp hint of laughing white, as it occurred to him just how utterly _awkward_ Lux was. Watching him sleep... Really. With how many polite, loquacious royals with a penchant for niceties Freud had met, it was oddly refreshing to meet someone who had about as much social skills as a young child. There was a certain charm about it... Or perhaps Freud was simply as nutty as Phantom often teased him about being, for finding it _charming_ that someone was gauchely watching him sleep.

With a strange sense of detachment, Freud remembered the kiss from the previous day.

It wasn't that the mage wanted to love Lux. It wasn't that he was unaware that this could only end in pain, nor was it that it was too difficult to hold back his emotions. No; Freud could claim none of these things.

The truth was that Freud was only allowing himself to fall because it could be an advantage. Bitter, was it not? Then again, that was how it was, in the end. Their love was a biting kind, one where neither of them would hesitate to kill each other in order to gain a political foothold.

And perhaps there was some part of Freud, buried miles under, that had the naïve notion that he could have a positive influence on the Black Mage, maybe change his mind.

_And if not... I'll be your saving grace, my dear Lux. And in the bitter end, I'll drag you down with me._

Lux's nigh emaciated fingers reached forward to tangle in Freud's hair, and the dragon master idly wondered if the way the Black Mage was practically skin stretched over bones was some sort of strange side-effect of the black magic he practiced. Freud knew that there were effects caused by that sort of magic, yet there weren't very many recorded incidences of practitioners of that sort. Many foolhardy magic-users experimented with dark forces during their younger years, but all of that was kept hush.

Freud blinked in sleepy pleasure as the other man's fingers ran through the strands of his auburn hair, even as he knew that the Black Mage was discovering the same thing that he had been noticing for a while now- how oily his hair was becoming.

"You need a bath," Lux casually spoke the first words that had come out of his mouth that morning. "Stay here."

It went as an unspoken joke that Freud had no choice to do anything but.

It disturbed Freud, as the door slipped shut, (In a deliberately quiet way, Freud noticed, which was a rare thing- he had only ever noticed Phantom doing that. Most people simply let the door fall shut carelessly. Perhaps it was a trait closely related to cautiousness) that as every day passed he found himself missing Lux more and more when the man left. Dependency could be a terrifying thing.

What was perhaps even more disturbing was that Freud had begun to think of freedom less often.

Lux returned with a circular basin full of water, as well as some shampoo, conditioner and a sponge. He set it down on the floor and then sat, cross-legged, his eyes sliding shut calmly.

Freud stripped. The mage had never felt ashamed of his body, and besides which, Lux was not sexually attracted to anyone anyways. The unassuming white robes fell to the floor in a pile of cloth, and the dragon master took the sponge.

"Why not just let me shower?" Freud asked curiously.

"I don't trust you not to drown yourself."

Freud's eyebrows arched. "Don't you profess to know me well? You should be aware of the fact that I wouldn't care to do that."

"You seem to underestimate how much of an enigma you can be."

Freud shrugged his shoulders noncommittal as he washed up, enjoying the feeling of cleanliness. Lux's eyes peered open and he observed Freud innocently- with nothing but an artist's eyes, observing loveliness where he found it.

A minute or two passed in comfortable silence, before Lux spoke again, at the same time as he shifted forward and placed the basin between his crossed legs. "Come here."

Lux tugged Freud down, guiding his head to the warm water to soak through. Next, he popped open the top of the shampoo and used a liberal amount on the mage's hair.

Freud hummed, pleased by the pleasant feeling of Lux's fingers massaging at his scalp, the slightest hint of nails tracing idle patterns by his ears. Having his hair washed by another person was actually quite relaxing.

The time passed quickly and soon enough Lux was towelling off the damp reddish strands, letting his cheek rest against the top of Freud's head.

"What are your commanders going to think?" Freud murmured drowsily, boneless against Lux's chest.

"My business is none of theirs," Lux's hand cupped Freud's cheek.

"They're going to find out one of these days, you know," Freud commented with amusement dancing in his voice. "you spend quite the odd amount of time with your captive."

"I do, do I?" Lux smiled. "Well, my captive is worth my time."

Freud blinked. "I love you." The words rolled from his lips like a breath, strangely easy to say. He felt Lux tense behind him, previously stroking fingers freezing against his warm cheek. A mumbled excuse and he was gone, leaving Freud to curl up in bed with a smirk, knowing he'd startled the other man. He had the upper hand.

_No one's ever told you that, have they, Lux?_

A fond thought briefly crossed Freud's mind. _You're going to hear it all the time, from now on._

_(Disconcertion crashed over him like a tidal wave when he realized that he was assuming that he'd be Lux's captive, from then on.)_

Freud fell victim to an uneasy sleep, seeing as he was awoken early, and he dreamt of two toppled kings and a knight coming to his rescue.


	13. Paramour

_/You are the hole in my head, you are the space in my bed. You are the silence in between, what I thought and what I said. You are the night time fear, you are the morning, when it's clear. When it's over, you're the start. You're my head, and you're my heart.../_

There was a certain wholeness that came with being cradled in someone else's arms, a certain fulfillment that was difficult to achieve anywhere else. That sense of completion settled over Freud in an utterly satisfactory way, then.

The captive had awoken to the feeling of warm breath against his neck and solid arms wrapped about his waist, and even in his sleep-addled state, the mage knew that the one holding him was Lux.

A languid yawn and then Freud was mouthing off some lazy comment- "If you wanted to cuddle, you could have just asked."

A pair of soft yet chapped lips quirked up against the back of Freud's neck, speaking of laughter in his red eyes that Freud just knew was there. Sometimes, the scholar wondered if everything was a game to the other man, with how he childishly raged over every loss, and allowed smugness to creep over him with every victory. "Where's the fun in that?"

They were speaking in hushed voices, as if the moment was one that could be broken with any sound above a murmur. It was fragile, yet comfortable.

Time passed in a warm silence and Freud could feel the rise and fall of Lux's chest against his back, feel the heartbeat that betrayed his humanity like the commanders that had betrayed him. An absurd, random thought crossed Freud's mind.

"You're not so different from Phantom, you know."

Freud snickered because he just _knew_ that Lux was making quite the sour face just then. The observation rang true in the hero's mind, though; the two often seemed to share a similar sense of humor, and a likewise 'the ends justify the means' sort of attitude.

"Please don't compare me to that imbecile. That's about as true as you being similar to Hilla."

"Are you calling me an old woman?" Freud smirked.

"No, I'm calling you an old woman with the intelligence of a spork," The quip, coming from Lux, was unexpected, and had Freud doubling over with mirth, clutching at his stomach. It was strange; Freud couldn't remember laughing like that in a long time. It had him aching for simpler times.

Lux's hand came to rest against Freud's stomach comfortably, clawed thumb resting gently over his navel.

"My dear Freud..." Lux breathed so quietly that man he held captive nearly didn't hear it.

They rested there for the next half hour or so, until Freud's eyes slid shut. Through it all, Lux stayed awake- one of his many quirks was insomnia.

When Freud awoke, eyes squinting against the bright sunlight from the window, the other man was gone.

The nightly visits continued, every few evenings. Freud was not a heavy sleeper, and so he always woke up when he felt Lux's body curled against his.

One night, Freud found Lux's fingers against his stomach once more, naught but caressing his skin, and he felt goosebumps make their way along his arms at the bare scrape of nails.

And then Lux's hand crept lower.

Freud blinked, a flush rising to his cheeks and coloring them cotton candy. "...What are you doing?"

"Touching you," Lux murmured idly, drowsily. His hand was clumsy and inexperienced in the way that it curled against the fine trail of hairs leading downwards, yet it was pleasant nonetheless.

"Why...?"

"Can't I touch my lover without so many questions?" Amusement echoed in Lux's voice. Freud was caught off-guard and the other mage knew it.

Lovers. What a strange word to define their relationship. Well, turn-about was fair play, and the redhead knew that the man holding him to his chest was simply turning around his startling '_I love you'._

And Freud's train of thought was quickly derailed in a violent wreck as Lux's hand wrapped around him, igniting a spark of desire that quickly became a flame, burning away from the hairs on his head, to the pit of his stomach, to his curling toes.

The two men's legs tangled together in a way that should have been awkward, but was instead intimate. Lux's hand was soft and somehow, Freud found himself trusting him to be careful with his claws. The scholar could tell that the raven-haired man had never done this before, not even to himself, because the way he seemed not quite sure what to do was testimonial to that enough.

Lux's thumb rubbed curiously against the tip and Freud found himself lolling his head back against a bony shoulder, breath coming out in a soft, aroused exhale.

"_Lux... _Can you... Can you-" Freud shook his head and simply grabbed Lux's hand. Their fingers entangled and he guided him. Tight on the upstroke, loose on the downstroke, and Freud's breath was coming in soft pants as he showed his _lover_ how he liked it.

It was too much and not enough and _Goddess, _there was lightning running through Freud's veins, and somehow it wasn't just _fucking. _Freud wouldn't use a term so cliché as making love, but this was giving himself to Lux, entrusting himself to the other man and letting him see him in his weakest state.

The Black Mage wasn't doing this for himself, due to his asexuality; he was doing it for Freud.

Freud was burning up, hot all over, and in the darkness Lux could vaguely see that his pupils were heavily dilated, blown wide and half-framed by his lashes.

The heat was all-consuming and the want was one of the most powerful things Freud had felt, as he came undone with Lux's efforts being only single-handed.

Freud reached up and gently fisted a hand in Lux's hair to tug him down for a kiss that was uncomfortable in its awkward positioning, but perfect nonetheless.

A warm, wet slide of Lux's tongue against his and Freud was tipping over the edge of a cliff and it was a long, long way down, but Lux was there to guide him through the fall. Freud was reaching, fingers tangled in the sheets just for something to hold on to as his mind went blank with full-on pleasure.

It took several moments for any vaguely coherent thoughts to register in the dragon master's mind once more, and even then, he was too tired to think.

Freud rolled over and wrapped himself up in Lux, close as he could get, and it was enough for then.


	14. Eques

It was getting harder to sleep without Lux beside him.

As a rather independent man, Freud found it strange to be so dependent on another, but there was something beautiful about laying close in a tangle of arms and legs and just resting his head against Lux's, so that ruddy auburn and inky black strands of hair mingled together like their breath.

Sometimes Freud would call Lux _love, _just for the almost scandalized expression that it caused him to make. And in the morning, he lay in a tangle of sheets, feet bare past the layer of cotton as he sleepily sighed into the pillow and flashed his teeth in what was undeniably a lovesick grin.

And one morning, as Freud lay in bed reading one of the books Lux had brought him, he glanced over his shoulder to see the Black Mage entering the room. Idly, the scholar licked a finger and turned the page. The cold light from the window cast interesting patterns on the worn paper, due to the falling snow.

"Will you come with me?" Lux asked, and it occurred to Freud how strangely soothing his voice was. It was deep, quiet and pleasing to the ears.

Wordlessly, Freud laid his feet down and rolled back over to his back to stand up, bare feet twitching against the cool floor. The other mage's fingers wrapped around his slender wrist and he smiled because it was déjà vu flashing in his mind.

They walked the by now familiar halls together, side-by-side, and it was times like those that Freud could almost forget that they weren't in equal positions- he was Lux's captive, and he needed to remember that.

They walked farther than Freud had been before, until they reached a doorway and Lux was fishing out a key from somewhere in his robes. It unlocked the door with a smooth click.

When they stepped inside, the dragon master realized that they were inside a tower. There was a door on the opposite side, and in the center there were stairs that ascended high up. The Black Mage guided him up the spiraling stairs.

At the top, Freud held onto the stone edge and gazed out into vast fields of snow and evergreen trees, enjoying the feeling of icy cold wind against his face. Unlike Phantom, he enjoyed the cold.

The mage was startled to feel Lux's arms wrap around him from behind, and the other man's chin resting against his shoulder.

"Do you enjoy the view?"

Freud blinked and said simply, "Yes."

"Good," Lux murmured against the scholar's neck with a smile. "Hilla has won another battle.."

The dragon master looked over his shoulder apprehensively, waiting expectantly.

"The famous bowmaster of Henesys is not so indestructible as many may think."

Freud's eyes widened. "Athena Pierce?"

"Indeed."

And then he tensed, nearly recoiling from Lux's touch. It was a harsh reminder that Lux was a murderer, a reminder that felt much like a bucket of icy water dumped over his head. His horror was palpable.

"Be calm, Freud. She isn't dead."

...The relief that washed over Freud was something that he was ashamed of. Because it wasn't just relief that the elven archer was alive- it was relief that he could avoid the truth once more.

_The truth that the Black Mage- no, his __**lover**__, would not falter in killing his friends, his colleagues, his acquaintances... Everyone he'd ever known, just to achieve his twisted goals._

With a sigh and weary gaze, Freud slumped back against Lux, tipping his head to stare up at the overcast sky. Snow landed in his hair.

"So she's your prisoner."

"I intend to use her as... The beginnings of a negotiation."

"And yet you haven't used me as such," Freud observed curiously.

A soft smile.

"You, my dear Freud, are too precious to part with."

And in the midst of the snow, the two shared a kiss that warmed the both of them.

* * *

It was dark when Freud's eyes opened, but when he felt around the bed, it was still empty except for himself. His brow furrowed; usually, he only awoke to the feeling of the bed shifting under Lux's weight.

So what had woken him?

The hero nestled further into the blankets, wide awake as he stared out into the darkness of the room. And slowly, he watched the door slide open without a sound, and light flooded into the room.

A pair of deep blue eyes met amethyst ones, and both widened in shock.

"Hello, old friend... You look like you've seen a ghost," Freud grinned widely.


	15. Vale

"You're alive?" Phantom breathed incredulously, and Freud could see him trying not to fall apart, see his hands shaking. "But how?"

"I didn't die from my injuries, and Lu- the Black Mage took me as his prisoner," Freud explained, glancing towards the cracked open door warily. "...As much as I'd love to catch up, I think we should get going."

But by Rhinne, it was good to see Phantom again. The scholar had missed his incorrigible friend greatly. He just hoped that the other man hadn't caught on to his slip of the tongue just then.

With a solemn look that was an oddity to see on the playful scoundrel's face, Phantom strode over to his fellow hero and hugged him briefly but warmly, clapping him on the back.

"For all the worlds, I could have sworn that he had killed you then."

Freud nodded. Phantom inconspicuously peered out the door, checking to make sure that no one was out there, before beckoning for his comrade to follow. And as the scholar walked out the door, he tried his hardest not to look back.

He failed.

This was the room he had shared so many memories with his lover, with Lux, and it was a difficult thing to leave behind. But he knew that he had to. He had no qualms with admitting that he was one of the most powerful men on the side of the empress, and he would do her no good sitting around in what was really just a prettied up _jail cell_.

Still, with an aching chest Freud wondered if he would ever be held close to Lux's chest again, sharing a sleepy silence that dripped warmth and comfort.

One last glance and then they were out the door, Phantom shutting it silently behind them.

"So? How did you get in here?" The dragon master whispered a query.

Phantom just smiled sheepishly.

"..._Please_ don't tell me you used the front door," Freud released a long-suffering sigh. What kind of _master thief_ just waltzed straight into the home of the enemy? Then again, it wasn't as if Lux was stupid enough to have some sort of backdoor leading straight into the place.

"I suppose I'll leave it to your imagination, then," Phantom winked. "We have to find Athena Pierce. She was captured as well. Any idea where she is?"

"There was an old cell where I was kept for a while. Perhaps she's there."

"Then let's-" Phantom abruptly paused, frowning.

And then Freud heard it; the sound of footsteps, two pairs of them, and the chatter of two guards.

"Come on," Freud hissed, taking off running towards the tower. When they reached it, he tried turning the knob, but the door wouldn't open.

Right, it was locked.

Phantom pushed the other hero aside and withdrew a lockpick. Freud nervously watched on while the thief picked the lock. The voices were coming closer.

And, to his relief, the door then swung open. Without any further ado Freud grabbed Phantom's arm and pulled him behind the stairs with him.

They waited with bated breath, hands over their mouths as the guardsmen came closer and closer.

"Door's open. Rickety old thing," Freud heard one man say, while the other grunted in agreement.

Tense moments passed before they could no longer hear the men. With twin sighs of relief, the heroes stepped out from behind the stairs.

"Freud. We're leaving Athena, it's too dangerous."

"What?" Freud's eyes narrowed. "We can't just leave her here."

Phantom grabbed Freud by the front of his robes and glared fiercely at him. "I am _not_ risking losing you again. He's not going to kill her, obviously. We need to go _now."_

Freud stared back for several moments, before nodding tersely.

Phantom looked almost surprised that he had convinced the stubborn man. They set off once more, sticking to the shadows.

The two made it towards the entrance doors with relative ease; the guards were average people, and easy to avoid. A man and a woman stood by the doors. Freud recognized both of them.

"I can take them out-"

"Wait," Phantom held out a hand in front of Freud. He pulled out a card and, in a flash, it transformed into a Black Wing hat. He smiled charmingly. "How did you _think _I got in here?" He put on the hat upon his blond hair, and withdrew his cane, holding it at Freud's throat. It was easy to figure out his companion's plan, and so the scholar went along with it.

They stepped into the light and walked forward.

"Hey, where are you going with the prisoner?" The man asked, confusion evident in his voice.

"Our lord's orders are to take him away," Phantom shrugged smoothly. "You know how he is. Strange as ever."

Clearly, the master thief was convincing enough, because both of the guards opened the doors and stepped aside. The air outside was frigid and burned Freud's eyes, making them watery. The snow stung his cheeks. The doors shut behind them, and then Phantom was grabbing onto Freud.

"We're close enough that I can teleport to the Lumiere," Phantom explained.

And they disappeared together in a flash of cards. And somehow, even as they materialized in a warm room upon the extravagant ship, Freud felt colder inside than he had out in the snow.

_Goodbye, Lux..._

* * *

Lux strode into Freud's room, feeling cheerful. All seemed to be going his way. Freud still may not agree with him, but he would make the scholar see his point of view.

It would be fairly easy to bargain with the heroes, Lux knew. All he had to do was threaten Athena Pierce's life, and they would be sheep, guided by their shepherd straight where he wanted them to go.

But as the Black Mage looked into the morning light-filled room, his eyes widened.

Where...

_Where was Freud?_

"Hilla!" Lux shouted, and the woman, whom he had known was nearby, came in an undignified rush, hearing the urgency in his voice. "Tell the guards to search the entire castle for the prisoner. Leave no place unchecked. _Hurry."_

_This couldn't be happening._

Even as Hilla hurriedly nodded and shut the door behind her, Lux knew that they would not find Freud. He was gone by now.

…In a solitary room, a red-eyed man dropped to his knees and let out a howl filled with pain and rage.


	16. Salve

Freud settled onto one of the plush beds that Phantom owned with a sigh. It had been a while since he had last been treated to the man's extravagant belongings. Through the window, he could see the clouds moving by. The windows were covered in a light sheen of frost. The scholar's bare toes curled against the fluffy carpets on the floor.

The memory foam bed dipped under Phantom's weight as the man sat down alongside the mage, holding a wineglass filled with rich smelling red wine and proffering one to Freud.

Freud smiled gratefully and sipped at it, feeling the alcohol calm his frayed nerves. "So, would you mind catching me up, my friend?"

"Of course not."

They talked for several hours. Phantom let him know what was going on; apparently the empress, heroes, a group known as the Resistance, and various other organizations had joined together to form a powerful alliance, which often gathered in Ereve to hold meetings. Many tidbits of information such as that were passed on to Freud.

And all the while, Freud, with a sense of guilt, did not mention what had happened between he and Lux.

Phantom flopped back against the bed and smiled warmly, obliviously, at his friend, and that was when the scholar realized that _this was it,_ _wasn't it?_ He had to tell him. He needed to let them all know about the Black Mage's plans of using Athena as a bargaining chip.

"Phantom... Listen-"

_Knock, knock, knock _came three precise taps at the door. Phantom glanced at Freud apologetically and called out, "What is it? Can't you see we're talking, here?"

The door creaked open. "My apologies, sir. I came to let you know that we've arrived."

"Ah, so we're here."

'Here' so happened to be Ereve, home of the empress. Phantom had mentioned that there was a meeting being held, and they were headed for it to announce Freud's rescue. Sunlight had begun to stream through the window, and Freud rubbed at his eyes wearily. It was morning by then, and he still hadn't gotten any more sleep.

Ah, well. He was used to it. It was one of the many prices that came with being a scholar.

The ship landed outside the conference room. Phantom wore a twitchy smile that Freud was sure meant no good. Mischief was sure to soon be afoot.

"Stay behind me, would you? I intend on us making quite the grand entrance."

...Well, that was the Phantom he knew.

* * *

Many great leaders and even the heroes themselves were gathered together in the conference room. Cygnus herself was present, and she rose at the sight of the beautiful, ornate Lumiere touching down upon the ground. She clasped her hands together, hoping that Phantom would not disappoint. But knowing him, he would not have failed to return with Athena Pierce.

All of the men and women present were startled when, as the stairs pulled out from the ship and led down safely to the grass, and the door opened, a small bomb rolled down and began emitting smoke. Cygnus shielded her bright blue eyes and squinted through the smoke, unable to see anything but a silhouette of the master thief.

"Phantom, what is the meaning of this?" Mercedes called out, royal exasperation in her clear voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have something- or rather, _someone, _to present to you," Phantom announced. The smoke was beginning to clear. Next to Phantom was a cloaked man, head bowed so that his face was unable to be seen.

Later on, Freud would swear that Phantom had dragged him into it, but he had to admit that he was having some fun of his own.

Phantom grinned, dipped a bow, and then grabbed the edge of the cloak and whipped it away from Freud.

And there was a collective gasp.

"_Freud?_" Mercedes breathed, her slender fingers coming up over her mouth. "Is it really..."

Freud smiled warmly. "Yes. Yes, it's me."

And then she was running towards him. The elven woman, despite her petite size, hit the human like a freight train, her long hair whipping out behind her. It felt good to have his friend in his arms again.

Freud looked up to see Luminous nod at him with a half-smile. Aran... Aran looked vaguely confused, as did everyone else in the room.

Mercedes glanced over her shoulder as she released the dragon master. "I think you have some explaining to do."

A sea of faces looked at Freud expectantly. And explain, he did, conveniently leaving out the parts where he and Lux had made out. And the handjob. Couldn't forget the handjob.

"We couldn't rescue Athena," Phantom bowed his head apologetically.

"We'll worry about that later. But for now..." Cygnus stepped towards Freud and clasped his hand with a smile.

"Welcome to the Maple Alliance."

* * *

**AN: just to make things clear, no, there's no shipping going on between Phantom and Freud or Mercedes and Freud. They're all just good friends.**

**Anyways... The story is ending probably in a few chapters. Yay, then I can get back to writing Phantom and Freud, lol.  
**


	17. Ante terminus

The meeting lasted well into the afternoon. The men and women discussed tactics and battle plans. Nothing was left unthought of.

Freud had a certain authority about him that had the others shifting aside to allow him to make suggestions, and nodding to his ideas with ease. It was fairly unanimous amongst the other heroes that they would follow him wherever he led them.

Freud watched his young 'successor' occasionally during the Alliance meeting, and he could see that the boy was wide-eyed and seemed fairly surprised to be amongst such important people. He could practically see the boy scribbling down notes on important things in his head, in a true scholarly form. The teenager was also well-mannered, it seemed; whenever one of the men or women asked him something, he answered with a 'yes ma'am' or a 'no sir'. Freud had to say that he approved, although Evan could probably use a little more backbone. Still, the redhead got the sense that said backbone would appear in tense situations.

Once the meeting was adjourned, the heroes were invited to stay in Ereve, and offered quarters. However, they declined the second option to instead stay within the Lumiere during the night.

"I can't believe you're really back," Mercedes murmured quietly, hands folded neatly in her lap. All five – now six- of the heroes sat in a room upon Phantom's magnificent ship, their faces lit by a beautiful chandelier up above.

"Neither can I," Freud agreed ruefully, honestly.

_I wonder what Lux is thinking right now._

Freud's chest panged with the pain he was beginning to associate with thoughts of his lover. He stood. "I'm going to retire for the night. I'm not feeling so well." With that, the redhead turned and left. His feet carried him down a familiar path to the miniature library Phantom kept onboard mostly for Freud's sake.

The smell of books was a comforting thing. Somehow, old and new parchment carried a wonderful scent to it that all lovers of reading could appreciate. The first thing Freud did was put his finger on a book and slide it out from the shelf to open up and breathe in, his eyes falling shut.

The scholar looked at the cover and his eyes widened immediately.

_The Maladroit Mage. _It was a story that Lux had given him to read, once. They had debated the point of the story together.

Freud dropped the book, sank to his knees and buried his head in his hands. And not for the first time, not for the last time, he wondered what he was even doing anymore.

* * *

"Thank you for your hospitality, Empress," Freud bowed his hand respectfully. "It has been nice to finally meet you."

Ereve was quite the beautiful place, with its grass of the greenest hue and icy blue sky. The trees grew tall and thick, and were filled with the sound of birdsong. It was a utopia of sorts, somewhat reminding Freud of a polar opposite of El Nath.

"Of course," Cygnus smiled shyly. The scholar caught Phantom's affectionate glance towards the girl, and he wondered if the thief considered her to be the daughter he and Aria had never had. It was a high possibility.

He cast a glance at Aran and felt sad. The woman had no recollection of their friendship, and was fairly distant towards everyone. Luminous was as always, with his black and white morals and bickering with Phantom.

Freud and his fellow heroes turned to leave, but Luminous froze, a frown appearing across his face.

"There's black magic in the area," He murmured, glancing towards a bush.

The leaves rustled, and a cloaked man appeared.

"Our lord bids you greetings," A quiet voice came from the man.

The heroes gathered in a circle around the empress protectively, staring at the Black Mage's servant with wariness in their eyes.

"Tell him to shove one up there," Phantom answered flippantly.

"He sent me to inform you that he wishes to arrange a meeting, within Von Leon's castle. It's up to you whether to come or not. However..." The man smiled. "If you don't, Athena Pierce will be killed."

Phantom threw a sharply edged card at the man, but he disappeared in a flash of smoke. The blond swore angrily.

Freud's eyes hardened.

"Prepare yourselves. Tomorrow, we set out to El Nath."

* * *

**AN: Shit's going DOWN~**

**EDIT: Oh my flip I am such a derp. First, I forgot that Luminous wasn't corrupted in this (thank you for pointing that out, guest, I edited it out) and second, there was a word missing; 'meeting'. The Black Wing cloaked dude was saying that Lux wishes to arrange a MEETING. Sorry about that! I'm scatterbrained today.**


	18. Semper

The mood onboard the Lumiere was filled with turmoil. All of the heroes were stressed, knowing that in just several minutes, they would be facing the Black Mage.

Perhaps worst of all was Freud, who was practically pulling his hair out. He had never expected to be returning to El Nath, to _Lux, _so soon after leaving. What felt the most horrible was the knowledge that Lux could easily reveal their relationship and cause discord between he and the other heroes. Of course, they wouldn't believe it at first, but... Freud couldn't find it within himself to lie to his friends.

Cygnus had supplied Freud with a new staff from her knights' armory. It felt strange in his hands- he found himself missing his old one, that had been crafted specifically for him. Still, it was better than nothing.

Freud had to force himself to sit still as he watched the world pass by through the frosty window. Evan was doing his best to stay calm, but the older dragon master could see him tightly squeezing one of Mir's horns.

Mercedes looked determined, her eyes hard. She held onto the bowguns at her sides and refused to sit down. She looked like a force to be reckoned with, prepared to take revenge for the curse put upon her people, condemning them to ice for years upon years.

Aran was talking in a hushed voice with Maha, somewhere in the corner of the room. The two had returned to being as close as they had been before the warrior woman had lost her memories, but she was still simply cordial to the other heroes.

Phantom had his cane in a vice grip. As many times as Freud had tried to persuade him to give up revenge, the thief's thirst for vengeance continued to resurface now and then. There was murder in the man's eyes.

And Luminous... Luminous was perhaps the most externally calm of them all, but his eyes burned. He was clearly prepared to face the Black Mage, to clear his name of being nothing but Lux's cast-off light. To protect Lania, the little girl who was like a daughter to him, from the evil that was infecting the world.

It was with a dreaded finality that the Lumiere landed in a hidden-away clearing near Lionheart castle.

The heroes unloaded from the flying ship, weapons held to the ready. They approached two large double doors, the snow crunching under their respective footwear. Perhaps the only one used to the cold was Aran. The others felt the sharp wind and snow acutely against their skin.

The doors swung open as they came closer.

The legends stepped inside warily, and the doors shut behind them. And inside, awaiting them, was a single man, cloaked in black and gold robes. Lux's hood was down, and he regarded the heroes calmly. Evan tried his best not to tremble as he laid eyes on the man for the first time.

Lux's eyes met Freud's, specifically. "Hello, heroes."

"Give us Athena," Mercedes said furiously.

"Athena Pierce?" Lux shrugged. "You can have her."

A snap of the Black Mage's clawed fingers, and two guards were dragging the elven woman forward, bound in ropes. She was shoved forward, to be caught by Aran. The polearm-wielding woman made quick work of the bindings around the elf, who slumped against her gratefully, rubbing at her wrists.

"Freud," Lux looked at Freud and it was pleading, and the mage knew then, what he should do.

Freud closed his eyes, and when he opened them he was stepping forward, walking to the Black Mage. Each step echoed loudly, a call of condemnation to his fate.

_This is for the best._

He came to stand beside Lux, and was met with a gratifying smile.

"Freud, what are you _doing?"_ Phantom hissed.

"I've been keeping something from all of you," Freud murmured. "...I side with him." When he looked at all of them, it was calmly, coldly. "And I know. I know what you're thinking. That this is all just a fake, that I'm doing this to trick the Black Mage. But... I'm sorry." Freud turned to Lux and cupped his face in his hands, before leaning in to brush his lips over the other man's.

"You can't really expect me to trust you, Freud," Lux smirked. "Drop your staff."

And Freud did.

There was a stunned silence and it _hurt. _It hurt to see the raw betrayal in their eyes, to see the confused anger on Evan's face.

With a cry of raw anguish, Phantom was throwing a sharply tipped card at the both of them. A quick movement of Lux's hand, and a glowing barrier made of pure magic appeared. The card struck it and stopped in its tracks, falling to the ground.

"_Why?!" _Phantom shouted.

Freud smiled, then, but it was a bitter one. He blinked back tears. "_Don't you get it?_"

"...I love him."

And in one swift movement, Freud was whipping a sword out from a belt hidden away under his robes in order to plunge it through Lux's back, impaling himself on the point that edged out from the Black Mage's chest and locking the both of them in a macabre embrace.

_Goddess, that hurt._ Freud winced.

And Lux's eyes widened even as he coughed up his own blood.

"F-Freud...?" He breathed, before realization set in. He closed his red eyes. "It was always meant to be like this, wasn't it?" He asked quietly, voice strained with pain.

Tears ran freely down Freud's cheeks. He rested his forehead against Lux's.

"I love you."

Even as the world was going black, Freud could hear Lux's soft answer. Their hands clasped together.

"_I love you too."_

* * *

**AN: Soo.. Next chapter is the final chapter. c:**


	19. Ab imo pectore

Black. Freud was looking down at a checkered square upon a board. He looked up, and met the eyes of a woman with flowing black hair and bright green eyes. She stared back at him boredly, her hand cupping her cheek.

"Your move, child."

Freud raised an eyebrow. _Well, that was new._ He almost wanted to say that he wasn't a child, but that would come across as childish, wouldn't it?

"Who are you?" Freud asked, even as he moved a piece. It was black- how interesting.

(_It should be red, red with the blood on his hands...)_

The woman waved a hand nonchalantly. "No one in particular. A goddess of sorts." She moved a white piece seemingly without even thinking about the move, before looking at him expectantly. "Well? Aren't you going to say _'where am I? What happened?' _The whole cliché?"

"I don't suppose I will," Freud hummed, fingers dancing about the tops of the pieces.

The goddess chuckled. "I like you. Very well, you're in a limbo of sorts, waiting for your fate to be decided."

Freud took a guess. "By the goddesses?"

"Good heavens, no. Your fate is in the hands of your friends."

"I see," Freud made his move, taking one of her bishops. He took a deep breath. "...And Lux?"

"It isn't my place to tell you."

The scholar let out a frustrated sigh, and she smiled apologetically even as she made the move that would put him in check mate.

"Your only fault, my dear, is that you love far too much."

And the world faded away to nothing but black.

* * *

White. It was a sea of white all around Freud, pristine and clinical. He blinked at the room around him and tried to sit up, but a stabbing pain burned through his chest. He vaguely wondered who broke his heart, because surely that much pain had to be heartbreak.

Fuzzy thoughts echoed through his head, bouncing off the walls of his mind but never quite making an impact. He had the strangest thought; _Shouldn't I be dead?_

A tug at the thin white blankets and Freud was looking down at himself. He was shirtless, and there were bandages wrapped around his chest.

And it all came rushing back. Lux. The sword. Distant screaming of _'For Rhinne's sake, somebody get a cleric!'_

Freud jerked up with a gasp. _Lux. _He had to get to Lux, where was Lux?

"Easy, there."

Finally, Freud noticed that Mercedes was in the room. The elven queen was looking at him strangely, but considering the recent events, he couldn't exactly blame her.

Freud's eyes became half-lidded. "I have a lot to explain, don't I...?" He asked ruefully.

"Yes, Freud, you do. _Why?"_

"I'll explain, just... Please, is he alive?" There was a note of desperation in Freud's voice.

"As much as Phantom's been begging to remedy that... Yes, he is."

Freud slumped with relief.

"Now _explain,"_ Mercedes's eyes were narrowed, and her arms were crossed over her chest,

"...What can I even say?" Freud asked wearily. "It wasn't just an act. I fell in love with the Black Mage, while I was his prisoner."

"But betraying us was an act," It wasn't a question, it was a statement, but Freud answered anyways.

"Yes."

Mercedes shook her head. "I don't even understand you, anymore. What happened to the _rational_ Freud that I knew?"

Freud laughed softly. "He fell in love."

Mercedes smiled and rested a hand on her friend's shoulder, shaking her head. "Get some rest."

...It was some time before the queen allowed Freud to be led, in a wheelchair, to see Lux, who was handcuffed down to the bed.

But when he did see his lover, Freud felt warmed. A slow grin spread over his face.

"You look like shit."

"So do you."

The tables were turned. Lux was _his _prisoner now.

It would take some time for Phantom to accept Freud and Lux's relationship. It would take some time for _all_ of the heroes to accept that.

It would also take time for Lux to come to terms with his defeat.

It would take time and effort to press for the empress not to press charges against Lux and have him executed. But they would make it through.

Freud knew, then, that things were going to be alright.

* * *

**AN: Thank you all for sticking with me 'til the end of this story, despite how weird of a pairing it is, and thank you for all the favorites, follows and reviews! ^w^**

**It's been fun writing this!**


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